MAPPING THE INTELLECTUAL LANDSCAPE OF MENTAL HEALTH HELP-SEEKING IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH TRENDS, THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS, AND EMERGING FRONTIERS (2015–2024)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18623/rvd.v23.5703Palavras-chave:
Mental Health Help-Seeking, Higher Education, Bibliometric Analysis, Stigma, University StudentsResumo
Mental health help-seeking in higher education has attracted growing scholarly attention, yet the intellectual structure of this literature remains insufficiently mapped. This study conducted a bibliometric analysis of publications indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection between 2015 and 2024, employing VOSviewer for keyword co-occurrence, co-authorship, and co-citation network mapping alongside MATLAB for quantitative visualization. The analysis identified four principal thematic clusters and confirmed stigma as the structurally dominant mechanism suppressing service engagement, while co-citation mapping revealed that stigma theory, behavioral help-seeking models, and attitudinal frameworks constitute the field's primary theoretical foundations. Co-authorship patterns suggest that research within Chinese and East Asian contexts has developed along a partially independent trajectory, indicating potential limitations in the cross-cultural applicability of existing models. These findings provide an evidence-based intellectual map to guide the development of culturally adapted, theoretically integrated frameworks for future empirical research and campus-based mental health intervention design.
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